Throne of Bhaal Spoiler Solutions For Confusing/Unsatisfying Quests

A handful of Throne of Bhaal Quests just do not resolve very well.
They can leave you unsure if you've really finished them at all, or if
you've done something wrong somehow, or missed part of it. There are also a few quests with more than one ending, and you may want
to know what the other alternatives were.

So here are partial spoilers for those quests that may leave you wondering.

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Watcher's Keep: This quest is completely linear right up to the end, and there it suddenly branches out.
You have three ways to potentially complete this quest (as well as the option of just leaving and never finishing it, of course). First of
all, you can betray Demogorgon--let him help you escape from the dungeon, and then just leave him there. Kind of underhanded, but
if you thought Demogorgon wasn't going to betray *you* I've got a bridge in Nashkel to sell you. You get the most grovelling out
of Odren this way (as well as Jaheira and Anomen chastising him, if you're past chapter 7), but less experience than the other two. Second, you
could send the knights in after Demogorgon, and then, when the apparition arrives, do as it asks and seal Demogorgon and the treacherous
knights all in there together. There's a certain poetic justice to this, since it was what the knights were supposed to do in the first place
but tried to get out of by betraying you. Hah. The ghost gives you gobs of XP for this, and even Keldorn approves. Third, you could
slay Demogorgon yourself (either before reading the ritual or, for more XP, after escaping and sending the knights in). This is worse for
the world, since it sets Demmy free by returning his soul to the Abyss to wreak more havoc, but it's better than him getting loose on the
Prime Material, which was what was going to happen if those slacker knights hung around there without you much longer, and it gets
you a really cool fight. If you've already finished this quest with one ending, I recommend you try one of the others. They're all pretty
good.

Treachery At The Gate: This quest has several potential endings. If you nose around Kiser's house, you
will find the kidnapped soldier yourself, at which point you'll have no choice but to kill Kiser and his henchmen. Doing this makes you
feel like you've done something wrong somehow, but in fact if you take the long route, you'll end up with the same outcome. The long
route is to talk to Kiser and leave to confront Errard without bothering to search the house for the kidnap victim (even though Kiser
readily admits to the kidnapping). If you do this and you've already talked to the countess, Errard will helpfully reveal Kiser's hidey
hole for you--useful if you have no one in your party who knows how to disarm a trap, one supposes, but otherwise you're right back
to rescuing Ardic from the basement and slaying Kiser when he tries to interfere. The alternative path is to kill Errard as Kiser asks you
to. This isn't totally outside the realm of reason--Errard does show up as evil to alignment-detecting spells, even though killing him will
reveal him to be wearing a robe of the good archmage. (The moral here being that first-level divination spells should be taken with a grain
of salt. Which gives you so much faith in the spell's declaration that Melissan is good, but that's another story. ) Anyway, if you kill Errard,
when you report back to Kiser you will learn of his deceit; you'll still get to rescue Ardic, but he and his mother will both be distraught about
Errard's death, and the narrator will tell you you have doomed the citizens of Saradush. Oops. There is actually a fourth resolution if you are
evil or a good liar: Kiser may ask you to kill the countess. Jaheira and most of the good NPCs will pitch fits over this idea, and leave the group
or attack you if you actually go through with it. Regardless of which path you take, you will never see the captain of the guard again once he
gives you the assignment, so you can neither bring him any of the damning evidence you collect mid-plot nor report back to him once you've
finished it. You will also never see Mateo or Ardic again once you free Ardic. You can go back and see the countess afterwards for her thanks
and a modest reward, but everyone else involved with this plot fades back into the woodwork and is gone. The award you get upon freeing
Ardic is all you're going to get this time.

Romance With Aerie: This is the stupidest plot I've ever seen in a CRPG, bar none. "If I wear loose-fitting
robes, no one will ever be able to tell I'm pregnant until the day I give birth," explains Aerie. What??? Has anyone at Bioware ever SEEN a
pregnant woman? The excuses for why the baby was invincible were lame ("if I put him in a cradleboard, a fireball won't hurt him!"), the
two-week gestation period was insulting to my intelligence, and the birth scene was the most painfully ludicrous thing I've seen since grade
school nativity plays. (We're talking "Wait! Stop! I think the baby's coming! Look! Here he is! Isn't he cute?") This plot looked like it was
written by a ten-year-old. The game designers should be ashamed of themselves. Completely ashamed.

If you didn't get to see the birth scene, though, and want to (worth it if you have Korgan in the party, anyway, for his funny commentary--
Valygar, Keldorn, Imoen, and Jaheira also have worthwhile comments), try going to Watcher's Keep in between taking your final challenge and
going to the Throne of Bhaal. Aerie doesn't give birth in combat (thank goodness), so you'll need to have her do it before you go into the
endgame, and the plot doesn't have anything for you to do in between the final challenge and the endgame, so you'll either need to wander
around for a little while or go do the optional Watcher's Keep quest. You don't have to accept the ridiculous name "Quayle" for the baby,
by the way, nor do you have to marry Aerie when she tells you she is pregnant, for your romance to continue.

The Mad General: It is so easy to get into Gromnir's hideout that it's almost ridiculous no one's been able to
yet. You have three choices: obtain the key from the priestess (she'll give it to you if you're not evil, or you can blackmail her into giving it to
you if you are--the owner of the bar will give you the information you need either way), break in through the sewers with the sewer key you can
get from the guard barracks, or go into the tavern and get one of the courtesans to let you in. People all over town seem to know about at least
one of these three routes. They all go slightly differently, though, so if you went one way last time you may want to try one of the others this
time around.

The Book Thief: Once you have traded the scroll for the spellbook, you have two choices to end the quest with--
warn Hectan that the scroll is deadly, at which point he'll think twice about using it and wander off, or don't warn him, and watch his
gruesome demise. You lose some reputation if you take the latter path.

Devil His Due: There are several different ways to resolve this quest. First, of course, you can kill the lich. This
will doom Malla, and Marlowe will be distraught (either killing himself or fleeing, depending how you play it). Alternatively, you can bring
Marlowe to face the lich, either willingly or by tricking him, thus getting possession of Malla's soul gem. Once you have it you can either
betray the lich and kill him, thus saving Marlowe, or allow Marlowe to fulfill his bargain, thus destroying him. Whichever of these choices
you make, you can either use Malla's soul gem to restore the girl, or keep it for yourself; it makes a powerful (if unscrupulous) magic
item. If you have permitted Marlowe to be killed, you can take the additional step of giving Malla some money to help her get started on her
own. None of these choices have any bearing on the main plot, but they all have slightly different resolutions and slightly different rewards.

Eye Of The Beholder: You have two choices here: go after the beholder eye yourself, or subcontract out to the
low-level adventurers you de-petrify. If you send the adventurers the eye will, as Iycanth says, be guarded by kobolds. If you go yourself,
it'll be elder orbs. You didn't really want to fight more kobolds anyway, did you? Sending the adventurers will take a week (!), during which
your party will not do anything even including resting (they will all be fatigued at the end of this wait), but it is pretty damn funny, so
you really should do yourself a favor and see it at least once. (-: You'll also get the Bronze Underwear, if you're trying to build the Big Metal
Unit out of pants.

Monkey Business: There are two different ways into the monastery. You can get a key to the underground
passage in from some people in town. Talk to the bartender for a lead on that. Or you can go enlist Saemon Havarian's help. Several of the
townsfolk mention that he knows a way in, and Elminster also tells you so. Saemon will either tell you where to get the aforementioned key
or try to sneak you in the front door. If you can't stand Saemon, you never have to deal with him at all; just don't go into Smuggler's Cave, and
take the underground passage instead. If you don't completely detest Saemon, though, his is the more interesting route.

My Final Thoughts: It was a pretty good conclusion to the epic, really. I must play too many pen and paper
games, because Melissan did not have me fooled for five seconds. I really wish there had been more rude and suspicious conversational
choices while addressing her--you could insult most of the genuine good guys in this game, so why not Melissan? I also really wish the
writers had spent perhaps two more days with the final "where are they now" wrap-ups. It was such a great idea, and these characters had
gotten so close to many players' hearts; it was really depressing to see the same generic-violence tale for Sarevok regardless of whether
you had coached him to goodness or not, the same disgruntled-cleric tale for Anomen regardless of whether he had become a happy knight
or not, the same vaguely worded story for Keldorn regardless of whether he had thrown his wife in jail or not. Surely it wouldn't have been
too hard to write one extra paragraph for the single major plot choice of each character. Worst of all was Jan's half-cocked wrap-up, in
which he kills his ex-girlfriend's husband and marries her. For Pete's sake! The only plot Jan ever got was all about his ex-girlfriend
choosing to go back to her husband instead of stay with Jan. It was a poorly written plot, but at least it was poignant. This shitty ending
made Jan look like even more of an abusive gangster than the poor girl's first husband--and no acknowledgment of her plight is at hand,
either. The writers apparently thought this was funny. Maybe Nalia can sneak Lissa and her kids into House of Ruth between
good deeds one day while Jan is out tending turnips or something.